army tanks and hundreds of american soldiers deployed to romania, not far away, for a training exercise. melissa, it s note worthy that same u.s. destroyer the russians buzzed in february, uss porter, was one of the fighters who launched missiles in syria. fox also learned about another incident, this time in asia. a ugs attack jet was intercepted by south korean war planes just 70 miles from the uss carl vinson strike group currently steaming in the sea of japan. additionally, we have also learned a new russian shipment of u.s. service to air missiles have arrived in syria doubling the number of missiles russia has in syria after leading a new cease fire agreement days ago. and, melissa, that russian shipment arrived in syria one day after the russian foreign minister arrived here in washington. what s more, it occurred on the same day defense secretary jim mattis traveled to lithuania on
us that a malaysian airliner was shot down today. while u.s. intelligence analysts are still trying to determine exactly who is responsible, today s news comes after the ukranian government accused russia of shooting down an su-5 attack jet on wednesday, and earlier this week, a ukranian cargo plane was also shot down amid reports that rebels had seized soviet missile systems capable of bringing down aircraft. although no group has claimed responsibility for today s tragedy, investigation of what type of weapon was used and by whom has just begun. joining me now is editor of the interpreter and author of foreign policy, michael. weiss. the self-styled commander in chief of the separatist movement. he s also a member of the gru,
today s news comes after the ukrainian government accused russia of shooting down an su-5 attack jet on wednesday, and earlier this week, a ukrainian target plane was also shot down amid reports that rebels had seized soviet missile systems capable of bringing down aircraft. although no group has claimed responsibility for today s tragedy, investigation of what type of weapon was used and by whom has just begun. joining me now is editor of the interpreter and author of foreign policy, michael. there was a claim of credit early in the day. what happened to that? the claim was made by the self-styled commander-in-chief of the separatist movement. he s also a member of the gru, which is to say russia s military intelligence agency.
break it down. reporter: you look at the numbers. the current budget is basically halfway between what the pentagon wanted and the more draconian cuts that came during sequestration. the real headline number is reducing the size of the army from a peak during those two wars in afghanistan and iraq from 570,000 to 450,000. you re cutting a 45-year-old attack jet, the warthog, designed to attack soviet attacks. also cutting benefits such as housing allowances for soldiers, subsidies to stores on military bases. some of these are politically insensitive things. but as always the military is trying to make a balance of priorities with the numbers that they ve been given. so in terms of the cuts, obviously the things like housing allowance, that s going to affect the livelihood, the lifestyle of soldiers which is obviously an incredibly important thing and marines and sailors and others. in terms of the danger, could these cuts endanger americans both at home and abroad? is there truth